Purity Squad

One of MGM's short films made during the 30s and 40s was presented by TCM recently. These one reel movies were done, in part, to present new talent, or like in this one, to inform the public about a new drug. The emphasis of this short film is to show how the Food and Drug Administration, the government agency that deals with the approval of medicine prescribed in the United States, works in dealing with careless individuals that try to do their own version of a drug being tasted to combat diabetes.

Diabulin, was being tested in the form of a pill to replace insulin shots. When people begin dying after taking the drug, brings the FDA into action. The problem is there are some unscrupulous individuals doing illegal things at the laboratory where the experimental drug is being tested on rabbits.

The film, which is done documentary style, was informative in warning audiences of the time how vigilant the agency was in getting bad medicine from ever reaching patients. As directed by Harold Kress, and based on the screen treatment by Charles Royal, the film served its purpose by alerting the American public of the dangers of taking the tainted product.

Frank Fenton and Dick Elliott plan to push their new drug, despite the warnings of Doctor Byron Foulger. Their plans might result in the deaths of the users, but the FDA is on watch to make sure that CRIME DOES NOT PAY.

THis entry in the long-running MGM crime series tries to bring it into the post-war world. In the 1930s, it was all about criminals and how their nefarious dealings brought them misery and death. During the War, episodes concerned the Feds fighting spies and saboteurs. Now it was concentrating on rapacious businessmen and their quest for profits, no matter the cost in human lives. It's a rather dry episode, with men showing each other papers.

Purity Squad is one of the later and more importantly relevant short subjects from the Crime Does Not Pay series from MGM. This could be a plot easily for a feature length film today.

Byron Foulger is a doctor with a mysterious past that includes a felony warrant for malpractice and he's working for a pharmaceutical company trying to develop an alternative medicine to insulin for diabetics. When Foulger's experiment is released without his consent, his employers have him blackmailed to silence. Then the dead bodies start piling up.

Dick Elliott is the head of drug company and he's seeing lost profits and lawsuits in his future. Personally I would have just run with whatever you've made to some place without an extradition. But Elliott and associates are greedy men and the cover-up continues including a murder of an accomplice.

The Feds, the state attorney general and the Food and Drug Administration all get involved here, not to mention the local police. Given that the FDA has come into a lot of good and bad press with some of their policies, the film has a real relevance for today's audience.

I'd check this one out, it might prove interesting.

This episode of the Crime Does Not Pay series is about the work of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It begins with an announcement that a dangerous drug has been sold, Diabulin, and it should be destroyed immediately.

Following this introduction, the story of how such a harmful drug came to the market is explained through a flashback. A researcher has created Diabulin to treat diabetes. However, it's not been thoroughly tested and he is horrified to see that his bosses are planning on selling it anyway. And, their marketing campaign is even worse--with fake testimonials and a media blitz that make it SEEM like it is a miracle drug. But, it soon becomes obvious that the drug is dangerous--and the manufacturers couldn't care less and their number one concern is making money! This film was both very informative AND very entertaining--a difficult balancing act for a film. Well worth seeing, it's unusual for the Crime Does Not Pay series--but a worthy installment nevertheless.

MGM released a series of twenty-one two-reelers from 1935 to 1945 under the general heading of "Crime Does Not Pay." These were well made shorts that promoted respect for the law and gave publicity to such government law enforcement agencies as the FBI. Not merely propaganda or indoctrination, these two-reelers were entertaining short stories featuring many of the best character actors of the day, well-written, well-directed, and well-acted.

"Purity Squad" was one of the last in the series spotlighting the efforts of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to protect the consumer from bad medicine, in this case a pill, Diabulin, for type 2 diabetes that would replace the need for insulin injections. Ironically, sixty years later the drug community has actually created such a pill, Metaglidasen, now waiting for the approval of today's FDA. This film shows a much weaker FDA in 1945, largely dependent on state cooperation for approval or disapproval.

The story written by Charles F. Royal, who specialized in scripts for action B westerns, tells of a pair of con artists who take advantage of a discredited chemist to concoct a pill for type 2 diabetes. The two shysters also plant a janitor in the lab at the state capital to make sure the results on the test rabbits are positive by switching hares when needed. The FDA lab in Washington, D.C., runs its own tests which come up negative. Investigators are sent to the office of the state attorney general to find out what is happening to cause the two test results to be different. In the meantime diabetes patients who are taking Diabulin begin dying in alarming numbers.

I've seen most of the films in the "Crime Does Not Pay" series, which also led to a popular radio show at the time. None is boring. All, including "Purity Squad," are exciting and informative.